Seven and Nine
by Imagining Impossibility
Summary: I'll be eighty seven you'll be eighty nine, I'll still look at you like the stars that shine.


**Heya! Haven't posted on this site for ages and I don't think I've ever posted a Silent Witness fic before so feeling rather nervous about this piece :\ This is just a short prologue and it might seem a bit boring but I had to write it to get to where the story would actually start.**

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Nikki or Harry (if I did Harry would have been chained to the railings outside the Lyell centre. Or superglued to Nikki's door. Anything to reign him in!) and don't own the lyrics used in the summary, they're from Taylor Swift's 'Mary's Song'.

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**_Prologue_**

His thumb had spent a long time hovering over the name 'Nikki' on his phone. Almost every day he had the urge to call her; he wanted to hear her voice, her laugh. He wanted to know how she was, what she was doing, ask her about her current (and no doubt unsuitable) male conquests. But he only ever rang her on a Thursday, at half past six her time, half past one his time. It had been their agreement as Thursday, in their experience, had always been the hardest day at work and there was nothing more therapeutic at the end of a long day than a good chat; a 'best friend chat' as they called it. A chat in which they talked about anything and everything and usually didn't stop talking until it was way passed the time when Nikki needed to go to sleep. Luckily, Harry's job gave him an odd amount of time off and Thursday afternoons was one of those odd times in which he didn't need to work and so he could while his time away talking to Nikki. And when they hung up, it never felt like a waste of five hours, always like an afternoon well spent. And for that reason the Thursday best friend chat continued, every Thursday.

He was the first one to build a new life; a proper new life in which he settled down with a woman, made the decision to start a family. He and Zoe had a stable relationship, everything about it was right. They rarely fought and took things at a reasonable pace, there was no 'one-night-stand' to start it off, just a colleague who decided to introduce his sister to Harry. They were together three years before Rebecca was born, everything about their life was normal. Nikki tried to do what he'd done, tried to settle down and have a normal relationship but all the men she tried to do this with let her down; left her or did something she couldn't understand and in the process forcing her to leave them. She tried to believe she was just unlucky but it slowly tore her apart. So she gave up looking for anyone she truly loved and decided that, before she got too old, she was going to have a family, maybe not a conventional one but she would have children who were loved, who felt wanted in a way she never did unless she was with Harry. He was the only one she'd ever felt would be there for her no matter what happened. She couldn't help but wish Harry was the father but she gave up on that wish the moment he moved to New York. The moment he left her.

The first father had seemed nice enough, she felt horrible because he appeared to genuinely care about her but she'd made her decision and she wasn't going to back out now. It was simple enough, simply stopped being on the pill, told him she was still on it and then, when she found out she was pregnant told him she didn't think it would work, deleted his number in her phone book and forgot about him. Harry and Zoe and Rebecca had come over to visit her a few weeks after Peter was born, they'd stayed almost a month in her spare room. They helped her with everything, helped her redecorate the spare room even though it meant they had to sleep in the living room for the last few days. Rebecca had toddled around and attached herself to Nikki, calling her 'Aunty Nikki' and insisting that Nikki was the one to read her to sleep each night. As soon as they left Nikki felt their absence; she missed them. She missed having Harry there to joke with her, Rebecca there to hug her round the legs and force them to watch children's television, Zoe to have girly chats with.

The second father was a one-night stand; she decided that was a better way to do it as it made her feel less guilty. Zoe had just had Harry's second child, a son, Nicola. Named after her. They'd already begun to give him the nickname Nico but she loved the sentiment and it had made her desire another child, provide Harry with a similar honour. Her second child had been a son too, he hadn't suited Harry but she'd given him it as a middle name instead. They went to visit New York that year; Arthur, Peter and Nikki. Harry and Zoe had just moved into a larger house and so it had seemed like suitable timing. The three older children had got along better than anyone could have imagined, Nico crawling along after Peter and Rebecca, who were considerably quicker on their feet. Rebecca had been insistent on helping with everything evolving around Arthur, including nappy changing.

'I wish _he _was my brother' she had announced one day 'he's _much _cuter than Nico.'

The third father had been an American, she'd spent a few days with him and in that time decided he was nice enough. She hadn't purposefully made him into the third father but that was how it happened and she wasn't complaining, she was almost glad; she loved being a mother. A sentiment she never thought she'd possess. Her third child had been born on Valentine's Day, a fact which had amused Harry. He too had a third child, almost exactly a year after Clara. She'd been named Katherine after Zoe's friend but Nikki knew that had been a name Harry had been considering for Rebecca; he'd mentioned it to her in one of their Thursday chats. He sent her some photos of the happy family and she immediately felt herself feel jealous; Zoe had everything she'd ever wanted. She had the conventional life Nikki had been forced to give up on. She had the man Nikki had to let go of.

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**Thanks for reading, please review :)**

**-Checky x**


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